Proverbs 5:15

Proverbs 5:15, in plain English

Here's what you should do instead: find complete sexual and emotional satisfaction within your own marriage—that's where these desires belong.

Why it's here

The father now shifts from warning to positive instruction. Instead of just telling his son what to avoid, he's telling him what to pursue. He uses the image of a man's own well and cistern—fresh, available, belonging to him. This is the legitimate outlet for desire.

Who's speaking

The teaching father, now offering the positive alternative

Where it sits in the story

This is the Bible's actual stance on sexuality: not that it's shameful, but that it's meant to be enjoyed within the covenant of marriage. God designed sexual pleasure; the issue is where it's expressed and with whom.

The scholarly reading

Now the instruction pivots to the positive alternative: enjoy sexual intimacy and hydration from your own marital partnership, not from illicit sources.

Language and setting

The shift to the second half of Proverbs 5 marks a crucial rhetorical move: the father is not merely warning against what to avoid but prescribing what to embrace. The 'cistern' and 'well' (בוֹרְךָ ... מִקְוְךָ, borek...miqvek) function as metaphors for the wife—sources of refreshment and sustenance that belong exclusively to the household. In ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature (particularly the Egyptian Instructions), the figure of water from one's own well appears as a symbol of marital fidelity and legitimate pleasure. The verb 'drink' (שְׁתֵה, sheteh) is neither ascetic nor shameful but an embrace of lawful enjoyment. Tremper Longman and other recent commentators emphasize that Proverbs is not anti-pleasure but anti-misplaced pleasure.

Voice

The father-teacher, now offering the constructive alternative to seduction.

Significance

This connects to the theological affirmation of marital sexuality found in Song of Songs and Hebrews 13:4 ('Let the marriage bed be kept undefiled'), countering later Christian asceticism's deprecation of embodied marital joy.

13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

14I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

Read all of Proverbs 5 — The lips of a forbidden woman drip honey — but her end is bitter as wormwood. A warning that sounds ancient but arrives fresh every generation.